December 11th, 2008
Lenovo confirms window shopping for acquisitions
Lenovo on Thursday confirmed that it is talking to “independent third parties” about potential acquisitions and investments.
In overseas trading Wednesday–Lenovo trades on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong–shares spiked 27 percent in heavy trading on various reports that the PC maker was going to pull the trigger on acquisitions. The reports are plausible given that Lenovo is now the No. 4 PC maker following Acer’s acquisition of Gateway.
Lenovo in an announcement confirmed that it is talking to other companies about deals, but added that there are no transactions to disclose. It also issued a statement for regulators on its trading volume.
The company said:
The Directors wish to emphasis that the Company does look at different business investment opportunities from time to time. The Directors confirm that the Company has certain preliminary discussions with independent third parties regarding potential investments opportunities and acquisitions. The Directors wish to state that no negotiation has been carried out in respect of any of the possible acquisitions at this stage, and no transaction term or agreement relating to any of the possible acquisitions has been agreed upon or entered into by the Company. There is no assurance that any definitive agreement will ultimately be reached. Further announcement will be made as and when appropriate.
In other words, Lenovo (see most popular reviews) is in the window shopping stage.
Media outlets in Brazil have reported that Positivo Informatica, Brazil’s largest PC maker, was on Lenovo’s shopping list. That deal, however, wouldn’t allow Lenovo to close its market share gap with Acer. Bloomberg also reports that Dell may be interested in Positivo. Brazil is one of the key emerging markets for technology vendors–it’s the “B” in BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China). Fujitsu has also been rumored to be in talks to sell its PC unit to Lenovo, according to Reuters.
Although it’s debatable whether Lenovo absolutely has to be No. 3 in market share there’s clearly no glory in China’s champion being No. 4. Here’s a look at the most recent market share standings worldwide via IDC (units in thousands):
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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